Some articles of note from the last several days:

-Thomas Lifson at the American Thinker continues his in-depth look at the troubles confronting Airbus. Short story, the role of politicians in the Airbus decision-making process presents the company with real challenges, even before one considers further convolution if Russia is welcomed on board as a desperately needed capital partner.

-The AP reports on what appears to be growing interest in the new and improved version of the 747. Combined with Lifson's column it's clear the 747-8 freighter has taken its A380 counterpart to the cleaners and now threatens the passenger version of the A380 as well, even though the A380 and 747-8 aren't truly direct competitors.

-Back at Airbus, long overdue, serious cost-cutting measures have finally been announced after some political turmoil, but affected labor unions are none to thrilled.

-Meanwhile, the P-I recently posed a reminder that while Airbus flounders, the pressure remains on Boeing to deliver the the 787 as promised.

Worrying about the unexpected: With Boeing's 787 Dreamliner entering a critical time, Mike Bair, vice president and general manager of the program, has said it is the unexpected that he is most worried about -- something beyond Boeing's control.

With rollout of the first 787 due in July, and first flight in late August, Boeing has been rushing engineering resources to its partners in Italy and Japan to help keep the program on track for delivery of the first 787 to All Nippon Airways of Japan in May 2008.

But what would happen if an autoclave blew up? These are the giant ovens that Boeing's partners in Japan, Italy, South Carolina and Kansas are using to bake the composite wings and fuselage barrels of the Dreamliner.

What if a critical tooling machine broke?

"It is those kinds of things that keep you up because you can't plan for them," Bair has said.